Despite the massive humanitarian toll and the use of chemical weapons against his own people, over the past year Assad has seen his fortunes improve as Western and Arab countries, unsuccessful in ending the conflict diplomatically, have been unwilling to directly intervene.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah-backed Al Manar satellite network claimed on Tuesday that the bombing of an IDF patrol at the Syrian border was a kidnap attack, but the terrorist organization frequently makes such claims after attacks. Israel has not responded to the report. However, Israeli media reported that soldiers were trying to approach and arrest a suspicious […]

The “border with Syria has lately been full of jihad and Hezbollah terrorists, placing us with a new challenge, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Likud party caucus Tuesday. Speaking shortly after a bomb, apparently planted by Hezbollah, exploded at an Israeli patrol and wounded three soldiers, he added, “We have succeeded to maintain quiet […]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said Jewish diplomat Daniel Rubinstein would replace Robert Ford as the diplomat guiding the U.S. response to the crisis in the country. “It’s more than fair to say that he is among our government’s foremost experts on the Middle East and has served with distinction in some […]

Josh Fattal, an American hiker freed by Iran in September 2011 after two years in captivity, said the Iranians knew he was Jewish even though it was never explicitly stated. “I was so scared in those first months about being a Jew with an Israeli father, but at a certain point I embraced it,” Fattal […]